DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 303 



two months is not too long to allow before removing the supporting 

 apparatus from the limb. 



This, in general terms, represents the fact when the resources of 

 nature have not been thwarted l)}^ untoward accidents, such as a want 

 of vigor in the constitution of the patient or a lack of skill on the part 

 of the practitioner, and especially when, from any cause, the bony 

 fragments have not been kept in a state of perfect immobility and the 

 constant friction has prevented the osseous union of the two portions. 

 Failures and misfortunes are always more than possible, and instead 

 of a solid and practicable bony union the sequel of the accident is 

 sometimes a false joint^ composed of mere flexible cartilage, a poor 

 pseudarthrosis. The explanation of this appears to be that, first, the 

 sharp edges of the ends of the bone disappear by becoming rounded 

 at their extremities by friction and polishing against each other. 

 Then follows an exudation of a plastic nature which becomes trans- 

 formed into a cartilaginous layer of a rough articular aspect. •In this 

 bony nuclei soon appear, and the lymph secreted between the segments 

 thus transformed, instead of becoming truly ossified, is changed into 

 a sort of fibro-cartilaginous pouch, or capsular sac, in which a some- 

 what albuminous secretion, or pseudosynovia, permits the movement 

 to take place. Most commonh^ however, in our animals, the union of 

 the bon}^ fragments is obtained wholl}^ through the medium of a la^^er 

 of fibrous tissue, and it is because the union has been accomplished 

 b}' a ligamentous formation only that motion becomes j)racticable. 



Prognosis. — The prognosis in a case of facture in an animal is one 

 of the gravest vital import to the patient, and therefore of serious 

 pecuniary concern to his owner. The period has not long elapsed 

 when to have received such a hurt was quite equivalent to undergoing 

 a sentence of death for the suffering animal, and perhaps to-day a 

 similar verdict is pronounced in many cases in which the exercise of a 

 little mechanical ingenuity, with a due amount of careful nursing, 

 might secure a contrary result and insure the return of the patient to 

 his former condition of soundness and usefulness. 



Treatment. — Considered, ijer se.^ a fracture in an animal is in fact no 

 less amenable to treatment than the same description of injury in any 

 other living being. But the question of the propriety and expedienc}' 

 of treatment is dependent upon certain specific points of collateral 

 consideration. 



First. The nature of the lesion itself is a point of paramount 

 importance. A simple fracture occurring in a bone where the ends 

 can be firmly secured in coaptation presents the most favorable con- 

 ditions for successful treatment. If it be that of a long bone it will 

 be the less serious if situated at or near the middle of its length than 

 if it were in close proximity to a joint, from the fact that perfect 



